Your chance to discover skills that helped Messi

MERSEY FUTSAL are rolling out a programme to help develop the exciting sport of futsal in the county and to help young footballers in the region to develop using the game that produced the likes of Barcelona’s Lionel Messi, Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo and many more of the world’s greatest players.

MERSEY FUTSAL are rolling out a programme to help develop the exciting sport of futsal in the county and to help young footballers in the region to develop using the game that produced the likes of Barcelona’s Lionel Messi, Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo and many more of the world’s greatest players.

The next step is to bring the skills of Barcelona back to their roots in Crosby.

In his history of Barça, writer Jimmy Burns contends that it was in fact one of the club's first players, Englishman Arthur Witty, who exported the colours from Merseyside – Crosby's Merchant Taylor's School, to be precise.

Burns said: “Arthur claimed he drew on his old school colours for the maroon and blue that were to become Barça's.”

Through their partnership with Futsal Worldwide (UK), Mersey Futsal are able to bring into play clubs such as FC Barcelona to provide the coaches and expertise to develop the sport here.

Coaches from Mersey Futsal have attended FC Barcelona’s academy and worked with other professional Catalan teams to hone their coaching skills.

They also work to develop young footballers using futsal at the core of their training with the aim of placing the best ones at professional academies and have already had considerable success in doing this.

In Crosby, Mersey Futsal have just set-up two new training sessions at St Mary's Sports Centre which are open to all ages – one junior and one youth/adult.

The squads will play under the banner of Tornado Crosby and represent Liverpool in tournaments and leagues all over the UK.

It's a tremendous opportunity for young players to follow in the footsteps of 19-year old Liverpool Futsal Club goalkeeper Jordan Parker from Crosby who was recently selected for the England squad and also, Mersey Futsal players, Lewis Hunter and Joe Connolly who were selected for the England Youth Development programme.

A special development programme for Futsal will be starting next Friday – April 4 – at St Mary’s Sports Hall in Liverpool Road, Crosby.

Two sessions will be delivered every week from 7pm-8pm for eight to 12 year-olds and from 8pm-9pm for over 16s.

Anyone interested in attending will need to book their place by getting touch before hand.

Mersey Futsal's official website can be found at www.merseyfutsal.com so if you need any further information please do not hesitate to get in touch.